The Tattered Notebook: Back in Norrath

What a happy surprise it was to be able to log back in to EverQuest II after the extended downtime! I honestly didn't expect to see services up and running this soon, and I was even speculating with a few friends on the prospect of a Fan Faire with no gaming. I popped on shortly after news broke that services were restored, and it was nice to see familiar names start to appear. I realized that I missed my guildmates, and I was even happy to see the names of players who tend to get a little nudgy in open chat. It was like one big happy reunion party, but at the same time, there's a dark cloud still hovering over things. Sure, many of the loyal regulars returned, but did enough of them come back? And what about the more casual gamers -- the ones who play multiple games and tend to come and go? More importantly, is the downtime really over? As of Sunday morning when this article was posted, it seemed that services were down again.

Read on for a look at some possible answers to these questions.

Happy return

I was surprised at how much I had missed EQII. I had last camped out at the pig races in Mara, so the first thing I did was place a bet on good old Muddy, who promptly fell flat on his face and stumbled over the finish line well behind the others.

I then popped over to the guild hall and did a little dance as I hugged the giant raptor pets guarding the entrance. I was never a fan of the vanity pets that wander around our guild hall grounds, but I actually was happy to see them again.

I spent the rest of the evening doing some of the Aether races, which I had missed in the past. They're little mini-events in which you have to fly through a racetrack of floating rings. As you complete the races, you can earn little titles and hoverpad mounts.

Loyals will return, but...

There's pretty good evidence that the longtime, loyal EQII players will come back. The fact that so many familiar faces were back in game so soon after the servers came up means that a good chunk of the core playerbase was set to stick it out. A poll over on the popular community site EQ2Flames also tends to back that up, with almost half of those polled saying they'd stay with EQII no matter what and another 30% saying they'd give it weeks before moving on.

But the more interesting question is how many guild leaders and officers will return. Some might have enjoyed the break from running a guild, while others might have needed to scratch that itch in another game. It's possible that server communities might see some guilds either fold or have to restructure as a result. In addition, some guilds might need a little time to shore up their roster and regain momentum before they get back into raiding.

Make Good plan not so good

Another interesting tidbit is that EQII fans are rather underwhelmed at the Make Good plan offered by Sony Online Entertainment. Players who come back seem to be doing it despite the plan, not because of it. So the real question is whether the Make Good plan will be effective in luring back the players who tend to come and go and who aren't as invested in EQII. With a crowded MMO landscape and a growing population of gamers who dabble in several games at once, the Make Good plan will have to be enticing enough to win back people's trust in SOE's security.

Complicating that is the fact that so far, the relaunch has been a bit bumpy. Players have had trouble resetting their passwords (probably due to the sheer volume of people accessing the forums), the patcher has had some issues (players have had to delete certain bad files, like LON), and as of Sunday morning, the Station launcher was giving people messages ranging from "unknown error" to "you are not old enough to access this game." While I'd be flattered to have a game tell me how young I am, it's not going to help calm the nerves of already-skittish players who have had their accounts compromised.

What bothers me about the Make Good plan isn't the perks -- I actually think they're fine. I'm more bothered by the short duration of the promotion. The events in game are only supposed to last until May 22, and to me, that just seems too short. The Make Good plan isn't going to lure back the vets, because most are coming back regardless. So the promotion needs to target the more casual player and/or brand-new players. One week simply isn't enough time to do that, especially given the fact that things don't seem to be quite stable yet. I'd prefer to see SOE hold off on any promotions until everything is smoothed out and then use the downtime as an opportunity to roll out a bigger relaunch program that would last a few weeks, or even a month. The attack was undoubtedly a costly one for SOE, but it could end up being a chance to bring in new players and breathe new life into EQII.

While there are still a lot of "what ifs" yet to be resolved, it's nice to see EQII back up and running again. As the downtime stretched from days into weeks, Henny Penny actually started to sound reasonable. Given the fact that SOE had just gone through a pretty big staff reduction, the cost of this attack did raise some concerns about the future of SOE's stable of MMOs. And while things seem to be getting back to normal, we could still see some games end up on the chopping block. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the ride -- even if it is on a gnomish hoverpad.

From the snow-capped mountains of New Halas to the mysterious waters of the Vasty Deep, Karen Bryan explores the lands of Norrath to share her tales of adventure. Armed with just a scimitar, a quill, and a dented iron stein, she reports on all the latest news from EverQuest II in her weekly column, The Tattered Notebook. You can send feedback or elven spirits to karen@massively.com.